


Big Bada Boom

by speccygeekgrrl



Series: even the mistakes aren't really mistakes at all [11]
Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Kinga trusts Max, Kinga's brain is a minefield, Kinga's pretty confused too, Max is confused, Max is good at navigating this particular minefield, Slow Burn, everything is Confusing, pizza and a movie, weird conversations, which is par for the course really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 12:32:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11148489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: They said they were going to talk. Neither one of them planned the conversation. Which means it went all over the place, and somehow ended up where neither of them knew it needed to go. Somehow, they both end up where neither of them anticipated they would go.





	Big Bada Boom

**Author's Note:**

> Holy shit this fic is a rollercoaster. I'm sorry, it definitely got out of my hands and did exactly what it wanted to do with itself. I hope it's good.

Max didn't know where to start, too lost in thought to say anything as they drove back through town. Kinga didn't step up to fill the silence, just sat there studying him intently from the passenger seat. They hadn't even been at the bowling alley late enough for the sky to darken, clouds just starting to take on brilliance now, but Kinga didn't notice the vivid sunset, too focused on her second banana.

"I feel like a mouse being watched by a hawk," Max said after the fourth time he glanced at her to find her still staring.

"Are you scared?" she asked, and he snorted.

"I think fear is a common sense reaction to what I just witnessed," he said. "Then again, fear and excitement look pretty much identical from a physical standpoint. The difference is the emotion attached to the physical reaction."

"So what is it for you?"

"Oh, it's excitement. Completely." It was just a little lie. There was a healthy shred of terror in the excitement, but he knew her well enough to know that she would only abuse that information if she had it. "You did an insane thing on my behalf. I'm thrilled to know I matter to you. But the staring is a little unnerving."

"You look different," she said. "Or you don't, but I'm seeing you different."

"I hope the new perspective is flattering to me."

"You have no idea how much that's true." Given the way she was looking at him, he had to believe her. He blew through a couple of stop signs as they got closer to his apartment and she raced him up the stairs to his door, hard to tell which of them was more eager to continue the conversation.

"You want that better drink now?" he asked as he closed the door behind him.

"Yeah. My tastebuds are still reeling from the abuse." She followed him into the kitchen and watched him make her drink, still staring. Now he was free to stare back, though, and he was surprised by what he saw in her gaze.

"Are _you_ scared?" Her eyes widened and she hesitated a second before scoffing a little too dramatically.

"Me? Scared? Never. Surprised, let's say."

"Uh-huh." He strained her appletini into a gaudily painted souvenir wineglass and offered it to her with a smile. "Of course. Kinga Forrester doesn't get scared."

"What's there to be scared of?" She held the glass between both hands but he could still see them shaking. "You're not going to hurt me."

"Not intentionally," he said. He didn't say what he was thinking, which was that most of the damage Kinga took these days was self-inflicted one way or another. He didn't have to try to hurt her if she'd use him to hurt herself. That was another one of the unwritten rules of handling a Forrester: sometimes the only way to keep them from self-destruction was to give them a focus for those destructive tendencies. Max wondered if he'd just been handed a skeleton key to unlock those tendencies that his dad hadn't had access to. Dr. Forrester's destructive tendencies had leaned toward the lethal; tonight was as violent as Max had ever seen Kinga, and it hadn't even been aimed at him.

"You're not going to hurt me," she said again, as if she couldn't imagine him doing it even unintentionally. She took a slow sip of her drink, sighed, and tipped her head at the living room. "You wanted to talk."

"I mostly wanted to get you away from the bowling alley before the cops showed up to arrest you for assault," he said dryly, snagging a bottle of Coke out of the fridge before following her back into the living room. "If you don't want to talk, I'm open to suggestion." She settled on the couch and sipped her drink again, studying him for another moment before smiling.

"You said something about pizza and a movie... it could be a good movie."

"I'd prefer a good movie, yes."

"You could pick it," she offered.

"You only let me pick movies when you feel guilty about something," he said, sitting at the other end of the couch and reaching for the remote.

"That's not true. I also let you pick movies when I'm too tired to care." She shifted over to curl up next to him and his breath caught for a second. It wasn't like she didn't get this close to him usually, but usually he hadn't been recently kissed by her and it was easier to not think about how much he wanted to kiss her. She did it because she wanted to do it because she only did what she wanted to do... but she only did it once so it might have just been a mistake, in which case it would be a bigger mistake to try to kiss her back, because even if _she'd_ never thought about it before today Max had a hell of a lot of baggage to go along with the daily daydreaming about how he wanted to kiss her. "Not another rom-com," she said, and he bit his lip briefly. Yeah, right. His life was definitely not fortunate enough to be a romantic comedy.

"I don't know if I should go with something super violent for you to work out your homicidal rage, or something nicer..."

"I'm not homicidal," Kinga said, tossing her head. "I wouldn't have killed her. Just fucked her up really good."

"So probably not Tarentino tonight."

"Oh please, you practically fainted during Kill Bill. Come on, Max, I'm letting you pick, you don't have to pick to make me happy. Do what you want to do for a change."

"You always make fun of me for doing what I want to do."

"That's because you think too much about everything before you do it." She put her drink on the coffee table and leaned into him a little harder. He put his arm around her and reminded himself that he was too smart to make such a blatantly stupid mistake.

"You do things without thinking about them at all."

"Not always," she said. "Sometimes I put a few seconds of thought into them." Her eyes were suspiciously bright when she looked at him for a few seconds and then surged in to steal another kiss. At least he had a moment to realize it was happening this time. She tasted like appletini but he knew she was sober enough to be doing this on purpose. Well, if it was a mistake, at least it was a mistake for which he could blame her, even if he did kiss her back, and of course he did.

He didn't really know what he was doing. For all his daydreaming Max had just above zero experience with kissing. He let her lead in this as he let her lead in everything, and honestly she lead in this like she did with everything: enthusiastically and without finesse. She bit his lip experimentally, then bit it harder when he gasped.

"Ah-- Ow! Ow." She pulled back and he sucked on his bitten lip. "Jeez, Kinga, you really can't be nice about anything, can you?"

"That wasn't not-nice. I may have gotten carried away."

"When _don't_ you get carried away?"

"When you stop me," she said with a grin, and she was going to be the actual death of him, but how could he not take that opening? He framed her cheek with one hand and leaned up to kiss her back.

Kinga's kisses felt a bit like an attack, sudden, fierce, and, with that last one, actually painful. That wasn't Max's style though. He was a hopeless romantic, always had been, probably always would be, and he couldn't imagine kissing her any way except sweetly. He was so nervous that his lips only caught the corner of hers at first, until she turned her head slightly to fix the alignment and pushed her tongue into his mouth, never content to be anything but in control. The sour apple taste of her kiss was electrifying, and he let his hand slide back, fingers tangling in her loose ponytail as he marveled at how soft her hair was.

"You kiss like a noob," she muttered as she sat back slightly, and Max pouted at her. "You're older than me, shouldn't you be experienced?"

"Yeah right, who would I have kissed?"

"I don't know... you have a social life I don't know about."

"If by social life you mean I play Magic with other nerds, then yes, I do have a social life, but it doesn't involve making out, trust me." He fixed her with a puzzled look. "Where did _you_ get experience?"

"Boarding school," Kinga said, gaze going nostalgically distant for a second before she smirked at him. "It's a little cute that you're awkward."

"Please keep thinking that, because I am permanently awkward."

"It won't be endearing forever."

"Hopefully it'll be endearing long enough for me to learn how not to be, then." He kissed her again, aim better this time, and she made a happy sound and kissed him back, and he very quickly lost track of how much time passed while doing something he'd honestly believed he'd never get to do. Kissing was kind of weird from an objective standpoint, but it felt amazing, especially after Kinga figured out how hard she could bite his lip before he said 'ow', and who knew _that_ would feel good?

Her stomach growled after a while, and he giggled against her lips. "Did you think of a movie yet?" she asked, and he nodded. "Want me to order the pizza?" He nodded again, but didn't let go of her, unwilling to lose her closeness. "My purse is over there," she said, pointing across the room.

"Use the Force, Kinga," he said, and she cracked up.

"That's not my hereditary gift, nerd. Mad science still hasn't granted me telekinesis yet."

"Yet."

"I'm not working on it, but I'm not going to say it won't happen eventually." She made another attempt to get up, and this time he let her. "That's not even the superpower I want the most," she said as she crossed the room and came right back with her phone.

"Wait, let me guess..." She arched a brow at him and he thought about it for a second. "Technopathy?"

"Cheater."

"It's not cheating to know you that well," he said, grinning. "That's just being observant."

"Whatever you say, cheater." Her eyes were bright with suppressed laughter. "You've always said you want to read minds and I've always told you it's a terrible idea." He shrugged, laughing. He definitely hadn't mentioned that since she came back into his life, but she remembered. "The usual for pizza?"

"Sure." He found a movie on Netflix while she ordered the pizza, and she arched a brow at him.

"The Fifth Element?"

"I'm in the mood for ass-kicking redheads."

"I mean, I know I kick ass, but I've got nothing on Milla Jovovich," she said, and he shook his head.

"As far as I'm concerned, you're more of an ideal being than Leeloo."

"Aw, Max... you're delusional." He opened his mouth and shut it again without saying the first thing that came to mind-- _I'm not delusional, I'm in love with you._ Whatever part of his brain was responsible for caution won out for long enough for him to realize that she wouldn't take that well, even if it was true. Of course it was true-- it had been a defining factor of his life for years by now-- but she didn't know, and she didn't need to know... not yet. Not until he was a little more certain that today hadn't been a grand cosmic joke on him. He wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't just wake up with the whole day having been a dream. He'd never been sexually harassed in a dream before, but he'd definitely kissed Kinga in innumerable dreams.

"Well, I have to be some flavor of crazy to keep up with you," he said instead. "It's a requirement for Forrester second bananas."

"True story," she said cheerfully, and cuddled up to him again. "You already have a superpower, anyways. You're preternaturally comfortable."

"That's not a superpower."

"It totally is."

"I couldn't turn it into a career as a superhero or supervillain, so no, it isn't."

"Mm... okay, no. You're not a supervillain. I think we're just regular villains yet."

"Give it time, this is barely the beginning of our careers." She looked up at him with a calculating expression and his eyes widened. " _Don't_ start thinking about how to give us superpowers. You'd probably just give us cancer."

"I find your lack of faith disturbing."

"Give me a single example of a mad scientist who tried to give themselves superpowers and it _didn't_ go horribly wrong." She opened her mouth, closed it again, and gave him a distinctly sulky look. "Save the genetic engineering for things that haven't been born yet, okay? I like you just the way you are. No weird powers or extra limbs necessary."

"Oh, fine," she sighed.

"Promise me."

"Fine! I promise!"

"I'm going to hold you to that forever."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're so many kinds of no fun." Now it was Max's turn to look sulky.

"I'm so many kinds of fun too though. I'm just not down for weird mutations and painful science-induced deaths."

"If you're not down for weird mutations and painful science deaths, are you even a henchman?"

"Oh, _ouch._ " He pressed a hand to his heart. "You cut me to the quick. I can't be your second banana and be happy with the body I'm in?"

"Are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Happy with the body you're in."

"Uh... yes? Why wouldn't I be?" He bit the inside of his cheek, suddenly nervous. She'd never said anything fatphobic to him before, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.... Then Kinga shook her head.

"No, no, not like that! You should be. I'm just not happy with my body so I don't expect anyone else to be happy with theirs."

"Kinga... what are you talking about? You're gorgeous. Seriously, you're the most beautiful person I know." She shook her head again and he turned to face her more directly. "I mean it. You're perfect to me."

"You're obligated to say that as my best friend," she said, and he rolled his eyes. "I'm not perfect. I'm so far from perfect. I'm... I'm terrible, really."

"You're wrong. I don't know who made you think that but they're wrong and they gave you the wrong idea."

"Yeah, tell that to my grandmother..."

"Pearl? Oh, god, Kinga, don't ever listen to her. _She's_ terrible. She was always terrible. The way she treated you was terrible. The way she treated _everyone_ was terrible. Your dad, my dad, you, her henchmen now, she's just an awful person." Kinga's lip wobbled a little before she bit down on it harshly, and Max reacted on instinct, pulling her into a hug and resting his chin on her shoulder. "Don't listen to the worst people around you to figure out how to feel about yourself. You're better than that."

"Nobody told me that... not after what happened to my dad, when she decided to send me away. Nobody at school. Just... nobody." The last time he'd seen her cry was the last time they'd seen each other before the six years they'd been apart. The way her voice hitched now was exactly the same as it had been when she was twelve years old, a dead giveaway right before she buried her face in his shoulder.

"Oh... Kinga. Shh, it's okay." He rubbed her back gently. "I'm sorry that nobody told you the truth. Because the truth is that you're amazing. Exactly the way you are, you don't have to change a thing."

"You really think so?"

"I promise. Look, I'll follow you to the ends of the earth. I'll follow you _off_ the earth. And I wouldn't do that for anyone but you. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing I would change about you is to make you happier. And I'm trying to do that." She sniffed and clung to him a little tighter, and the words rose to his lips but he bit them back again. _I love you._ It would be so easy to say it, but it felt too manipulative to say it when she was in tears. It would be too likely for her to think he was only saying it to make her happy.

The knock on the front door startled them both. Max only got a glimpse of Kinga's tear-streaked face before she bolted into the bathroom, and he sighed and got up to pay for the pizza.

"It's paid for," the delivery girl said when he pulled out his wallet. "Medium buffalo chicken and large Hawaiian?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Have a nice night!" _Was_ he having a nice night? He was having a fucking confusing night. He felt like he had emotional whiplash from the past couple of hours. He brought the pizzas into the kitchen, pulled out the paper plates, and waited for Kinga to emerge.

It took her a few minutes to come out of the bathroom, and she'd clearly tried to clean up a little, but there were smudges under her eyes where her mascara had run, and her normally pale cheeks were still pink. "I think I'm ready for that movie now," she said.

"Yeah, of course." The buffalo chicken pizza was Kinga's, as spicy as they made it. Max had the Hawaiian, which she called an abomination among pizzas. The pineapple on pizza debate was one that had gone the entire length of their friendship. Weirdly, Max had gotten the taste for it from Dr. Forrester. Frank had also been anti-pineapple. They got their slices and got settled back on the couch, and Max started the movie.

He'd probably seen the Fifth Element twenty times. He never got sick of it. It was one of his very short list of perfect movies, an ideal balance of action and humor and romance. By the time Korben and Leeloo reached Fhloston Paradise, they'd both finished their pizza and gone back to cuddling, but were way too absorbed in the film to do anything but snuggle. Max couldn't help shivering during the Diva's song-- it always gave him goosebumps-- but he was pretty sure that Kinga's shiver was more about the fight scene and less about the music.

"God, that's such a good movie," she sighed at the end. "I'm glad I let you pick tonight."

"Thank you for letting me." She yawned into her hand and he squeezed her gently. "Bout that time of night? Want me to take you home?"

"No... I want to stay," she said. He nodded, and she clarified, "I want to stay _with_ you."

"You... oh." He blinked. "You mean like...?"

"Don't imply something I'm not saying," she said lightly.

"Then you should say what you mean really clearly so I don't misunderstand," he said. "Please. For my sake."

"I don't want you to sleep on the couch."

"Okay...?"

"That's all."

"Okay."

"We probably shouldn't rush into anything..."

"Kinga Forrester, are you actually displaying restraint? I'm astonished."

"Don't make fun of me," she said, hitting his shoulder. "Not right now."

"I won't make fun of you if you won't make fun of me," he said seriously. "I've never shared a bed with anyone. I snore and I move around a lot and I might wake you up."

"I've been told I kick in my sleep."

"Eh, you've kicked me while you've been awake, you probably don't kick as hard when you're asleep."

"This might be a disaster."

"It might not be a disaster." He stood up and offered a hand to pull her to her feet. "Only one way to find out, right?" She hesitated a second, looking into his eyes before clasping his hand and letting him tug her up and into his arms. "It's not the worst mistake either of us would ever make in our lives," he added, and she rolled her eyes.

"It's not even the worst mistake I would make _today_ ," she said. "But it was so satisfying to slam that ball into her leg."

"You're a crazy person."

"Yeah, but you love me anyways."

"Yeah. I do." She grinned at him, and all the caution he'd been harboring all night long flew right out the window at the brightness in her eyes. "I do love you, Kinga. I always have." She froze for a moment, then laughed and looked down.

"And you called me a crazy person."

"You are a crazy person. And I'm just as crazy. But I'm crazy about you."

"I'm just going to disappoint you," she said softly. "I disappoint everyone sooner or later. You think I'm perfect and I'm not."

"I don't think you're literally perfect. Believe me, after all this time, I know you're not literally perfect. But you'd have to fuck up on a near global scale to get me to stop loving you."

"Think the threshold will be lower on the moon?"

"We'll find out when we get to the moon," Max said dryly. "Maybe just don't do it on purpose."

"I'll try." She stole his favorite t-shirt to sleep in. He tried to do the mental math between his modesty and the warmth of the night plus their body heat, but she made the choice for him, wrapping her arms around him from behind while he was looking for a t-shirt to sleep in. “Come on,” she said softly, and he let her pull him to the bed, let her push him down onto the bed, let her curl up half next to him and half on him, one arm and one leg wrapped over him and her face nestled into the side of his neck. “Good night, Max,” she whispered.

“Good night, Kinga.”

He didn’t sleep for a very long time. He didn’t think she was sleeping either. But neither of them moved, and neither of them said anything else, and eventually sleep claimed them both.


End file.
